


Ninja Sides

by Hamiltalian



Category: Lego Ninjago, Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ninjas, Elemental Magic, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-09
Updated: 2020-03-20
Packaged: 2021-01-26 07:21:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 10,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21370324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hamiltalian/pseuds/Hamiltalian
Summary: I saw a Tumblr post daring people to mash up their first and current fandoms, so I made this Sanders Sides/Lego Ninjago fic in which Roman has fire powers, Patton has ice powers, Logan has lightning powers, and Virgil has earth powers. Deceit, Remus, and Thomas are involved too, of course.
Comments: 11
Kudos: 25





	1. Chapter 1

There was nothing that soothed the soul quite like the soft music of a flute, Thomas found. Despite the stress of being in charge of four teenagers, he always managed to completely let go when he was playing his favorite wooden flute. In fact, he was so relaxed, he almost didn’t notice the shuriken that lodged itself into a wooden support beam, inches from his head. 

Thomas’s eyes snapped open and he sat up as soon as he realized how close he’d been to death, turning to face where the other four were supposed to be having a simple sparring match. Instead, what he saw was Logan, his lightning powered pupil, and Roman, his fiery explosion of s student, on the ground wrestling, practically foaming at the mouth as they fought to hurt each other. 

Reacting as quickly as he could, Thomas jumped up and grabbed the two by the collar, yanking them apart and refusing to let go. 

“What is going on here?! I space out for two minutes and you two are trying to kill each other again?!” 

Thomas got a response, but it was far from a clear one, the two teenagers yelling over each other until they were shocked into silence by a minor earthquake. Thomas glanced over at Virgil, fighting a smile over the fact that he was accepting his earth powers. 

“Can you two ever shut up?” Virgil asked, pulling the blade of his scythe out of the ground. “He just asked a simple question.” 

As Roman glared and growled in Virgil’s direction, Logan gave Thomas the clear response that he needed. 

“It did start out as a simple sparring match. I had beaten Patton and Roman had beaten Virgil, so the two of us were up and I almost had the match won when Roman said, and I quote, ‘How could a wimp like you have beaten Patton? Lightning isn’t a real element, anyways,’ to which I responded by saying that I didn’t need elements to beat a pretty boy like him and he made the first attack.”

“He deserved it!” Roman snapped. “I was clearly just joking around and just because he’s not nearly as pretty as I am-”

“Guys!” Patton whined. “If you two keep fighting like this every time we train, how can we ever think of beating any bad guys?”

“Patton’s right, you guys,” Thomas pointed out, releasing his grip on the two. “How can you expect to work as a team when you can’t even train together?”

Logan and Roman sighed and glanced at each other before looking back at Thomas apologetically. 

“We got carried away..” Roman muttered. “We’re both at fault and we’ll both try not to let it happen again.” 

“I don’t need Roman to speak for me, but I do agree,” Logan reluctantly added. 

Thomas sighed and opened his mouth to speak once more, interrupted by the radio that the boys kept on. 

“We interrupt this broadcast with an emergency message. People of Edis Village are warned to stay inside after the sighting of some sort of thug disguised as a serpentine.”

Roman scoffed. “The same kind our parents used to warn us about in fairy tales?”

“The exact same threat that children are told about in fairy tales!” 

“You guys should go check it out,” Thomas said. “Never put off for tomorrow what can be done today.”

“It’s probably just some kid scaring the town, surely the police can handle it. We need to train,” Logan argued. 

“Thomas is our teacher.. I think we should at least check it out, since he told us,” Patton added, going to yank his shuriken back out from where Logan threw it at the wooden beam. “Besides, if it really is just some kid, it shouldn’t take us too long.” 

Virgil nodded. “Patton’s right. We go check it out, then we train.” 

“Fine,” Logan grumbled. 

“Let’s make this quick,” Roman sighed as he picked up his discarded sword. 

It was a fairly short trip down to the village and an even shorter time was spent finding the source of their troubles. 

Over the radio, the kid was described to be around their age with half of his face was seemingly painted with scales. He’d even went so far as to give himself as snake-like eye, but he hadn’t bothered changing out of the pajamas that the others identified him by: a simple yellow shirt and black sweat pants.

“Excuse me,” Roman demanded, stepping in front of his team. “What exactly do you think you’re doing?” 

The disguised teen, facing away from the four, groaned and slumped forward a bit, seemingly irritated. “What? Are you here to chase me out too? I just wanted some food, now leave me-” The second the kid turned around, he froze in fear, the same way anybody would if they saw someone carrying a flaming sword or a sparking pair of nunchucks. 

Easily the least threatening, Patton stepped in front of Roman to speak to the boy. “Listen, we don’t want to hurt you, but- Hey!” the icy ninja exclaimed as the kid ran off, leading the chase through the village paths. 

With every passing step, the kid seemed to grow a bit faster, almost losing the ninja a few times until he finally cornered himself, staring back at the group with rage. “I’ve done nothing! Just let me go and-”

Patton threw a shuriken near the kid’s feet and smiled as he was encased in ice from the neck down. “And you’re under arrest.” 

The kid was silent as the four dragged him and his icy prison to jail and stayed that way even as he was put in a cell, almost seeming unbothered by the situation. 

“I knew that would be easy!” Patton cheered as they walked back towards their monastery, spinning his shurikens in his hands. 

“Well, yeah, it was just some kid who thought it’d be smart to celebrate Halloween early,” Virgil sneered, rolling his eyes. 

“An enemy is an enemy,” Roman pointed out as they entered the monastery. 

“And what did you learn from this enemy?” Thomas asked, waiting behind the entrance. 

Logan shrugged. “It was a minor threat, as we thought. Just a kid who wanted to scare some people.” 

“He was probably trying to scare himself some free pizza,” Roman added. “He said something about wanting food before he saw us.” 

Thomas furrowed his eyebrows. “Sounds a bit odd. What else did he say?”

Logan shrugged. “As most trouble makers in his situation would, he asked to be let go.”

“Hm.. Well… It sounds like he shouldn’t be a problem anymore. I guess that’s what matters,” Thomas said as he lead the four back inside. “For now, it’s back to training.”

And train they did, but there was a thought looming in the back of all of their minds as the day went on and even as it came to a close. 

What did that kid really want? 

The next morning could not have come fast enough, Patton being the first two awake to cook. He hummed along to his music as he stirred the pancake batter, figuring it was okay for his team to have a treat of blueberry pancakes after their small victory the day before. Patton made quick work of pouring the batter and serving them onto plates, giving everyone more than enough so they could keep up their strength for the day. As he plated the last ones, though, his music was interrupted by some news. 

“We interrupt this broadcast with an emergency message. A prisoner captured yesterday in Edis Village has escaped and is nowhere to be found. The suspect was last seen wearing a yellow shirt, black pants, and with scales painted over half of his face. Anybody who sees this young man should take great caution and call the police station immediately.”

“Guys!” Patton yelled as he ran over to their large, shared bedroom. “Guys, wake up! That kid from yesterday escaped!” He rummaged through his clothes and pulled out his ninja uniform, quickly changing. 

“We put him in prison, Patton, how could he have escaped?” Roman muttered. 

“Yeah, someone probably just saw something that looked like him or whatever,” Virgil added, pulling his pillow over his head. 

“No, they described exactly him! They said he escaped from his prison cell!”

Confused, but alert, the other three jumped out of bed and got dressed, following Patton back down to the village and running towards what sounded like screams. 

When they reached its source, they did indeed find the kid from before running out of a shop with a sack over his back. 

“Hey, stop!” Roman cried out as he and Virgil began the chase, Patton and Logan staying behind to find out what happened. 

“He just came in and started loading his bag with food,” the shopkeeper told them. “Then he reached into his pockets, he must have had some sort of weapon on him!” 

“We’ll make sure you get paid for everything he took,” Patton promised with an ironically warm smile. 

“I don’t care about that.. I’m just glad nobody was hurt.” 

Roman and Virgil chased the kid out of the village into the nearby woods, wanting to get him away from the people, but also wanting to get back whatever he stole. But as dense as those trees were, it wasn’t long before they both lost sight of him, even with how much the yellow stood out against the trees. 

“Did you see where he turned?” Roman asked as he slowed to a stop. 

“No.. Dang it! We almost had him, too,” Virgil said, dropping his arms and his scythe to his sides. 

“At least he’s out of town.. Hopefully, he won’t be terrorizing anybody anymore, knowing that we’re around.”

“Hopefully..” Virgil muttered as the two began the trek back to the village. 

Far above their heads, a certain teenager pulled an apple from his bag, moaning as the taste hit his tongue. He couldn’t remember the last time he ate something so sweet and he knew it’d probably be the last time before he’d have something like that again, but he did have a long day. And, after pulling those cell bars open, he had to regain his strength somehow. At least he got to keep his money.


	2. Chapter 2

“Stupid ninja... Stupid people.. Can’t even be bothered to talk before they attack,” the mysterious teenager muttered to himself, washing his face in a small stream. “I swear, the next time I see them, I’ll-”

“Dee...”

The teenager was interrupted by a voice in the wind. “Who said that?” He quickly stuffed his things back into his backpack and stood up, grabbing the kitchen knife that he managed to steal from a town. 

“Dee..” the voice repeated, coming clearly from across the stream. 

The teenager hesitated, but began following. How did this stranger know about that weird nickname?... 

“Dee...”Dee began running as the voice grew distant, growing irritated himself. “Stop running, you- Ah!” He fell into a disguised pit in the ground, sliding down into a dark cave of some sort. 

“Ugh...” he groaned, feeling a soreness in his legs after the shaky landing. “Damn it..” Dee pushed himself to his feet and reached for his bag, rummaging through it until he felt the familiar shape of his flashlight. He pulled it out and clicked it on, illuminating the space that he fell from. It was too steep to climb and all but shut off. Great... Now, it was find a way out fast or die even faster. After all, he didn’t exactly stock enough extra water in case he slid into some deep, dark cave. Nor was he able to steal much food.. He sighed and turned around, screaming at what he saw. 

An army of giant snake creatures stood behind him, most on two legs and a single one slithering towards him with a staff in it’s two, scaly hands. “Look what we have here..”

Dee felt two pairs of arms grabbing his own and dropped his flashlight, though that didn’t seem to matter since they started lighting torches. He could now more clearly see the army of light blue snakes surrounding him. 

The center one took another step toward him. “Look into my eyes...”

Dee whimpered as his red eyes began swirling and turned away, squeezing his eyes shut. 

“Well, look at that.. An imitator.” 

Dee felt a claw poking at his cheek and clenched his teeth as it dragged through his skin, stopping at the corner of his mouth. 

“No.. You’re no simple child, are you?”

He wasn’t. Dee knew he wasn’t. Ever since he remembered jumping in the pool at a friend’s party against his mother’s wishes and everyone turned to stare at the scales that appeared beneath the washed out makeup. Ever since his own mother couldn’t stand to see him and dropped him off at that stupid boarding school. Dee knew he wasn’t normal. 

“Well, seeing as you are no normal human, surely you know the struggles that snakes like us went through before being stuck in this cave.” 

“I guess...” he muttered, though his expression showed that he definitely knew the struggles of looking different. 

“Well, then. Why don’t we go show them all what someone different can do.” 

Dee furrowed his eyebrows. “What do you mean?..”

“Show us out. We’ll make our own town and show them that we can live amongst them. Or you can be food. Your choice.”

And... Well... That was a very convincing argument. It wasn’t particularly difficult to show the snakes where the soft spots in the earth were, where they wouldn’t get crushed by a tree or where the ground wouldn’t fall in onto them. It wasn’t too long before they were finally outside, out where the moon and the stars lit up the night sky. Dee took a deep breath and left, letting the snakes to their own business. This wasn’t his business. This wasn’t his problem. This wasn’t his fault. All he worried about now was finding a place to stay for the night and figuring out where the nearest town was in the morning. 

Unfortunately, that meant ending up right back where he’d been, right back in Edis Village. That morning, he went through his bag and pulled out that stupid makeup that he hated wearing. He hated hiding something like that, something that wasn’t his fault, something that he wanted to be proud of, but after last time... He sucked up his pride and hid his scales, then pulled on a black jacket over his outfit, hiding his dirtied yellow shirt. As quickly and quietly as he could, Dee went in and bought himself food, water, and a second outfit, stealing a few more resources, just to be safe. It was probably easier than any other interactions that he’d had since leaving school and the whole day would’ve followed suit, if it wasn’t for... 

“Take everything you can find! The humans locked usss away and have had years to make their own villages. Let’s take back the time they ssstole from usss!” 

Dee attempted to blend in with the crowd as they ran for cover from the snakes, but a mysterious stranger in a hood could only escape so many eyes. He felt an arm around his arm and was pulled backwards, towards the serpents that terrorized the town. 

“Well, well, well, look who we have here..”

“Serpentine?! I thought they were extinct!” 

Oh no... 

“Apparently not. Wherever they came from, we have to get them away from these people.”

Wait for it. 

“Hey, there’s that kid! I bet he’s behind this!” 

And there it was. Dee watched as the ninja stormed the snakes, honestly just wanting to go back to that cave at this point. 

“Patton, start freezing some of these guys to take down their numbers,” that red one called out. 

“I can try, but there’s so many of them..” 

Dee watched as the white ninja, Patton, threw the ninja stars in his hands and began freezing the snakes, the other three attacking the ones who stayed mobile. The blue one with lightning nunchucks and the black one with this scythe, probably responsible for the rocks flying through the air, since the red one had a fire sword. All he could do was watch and be dragged around by the snake with the tight grip on his arm until that one was taken down by a blast of lightning. Unfortunately, thanks to that tight grip, Dee went out with him. 

“Alright, we got them!” Roman cheered as the village was finally free of snakes. 

“Yeah, after the rest of them ran away,” Virgil muttered. “They’re going to be back...” 

“True, but we’ll be more prepared then. We’ll train on and maybe this guy can give us some insight,” Roman countered, giving the hooded teenager a small kick in the side. “How big of a shock did you give him, Logan?”

“Nothing lethal. He was only shocked because of the snake grabbing his arm, there couldn’t have been enough voltage transferred to kill him.” 

“Whoop-de-do, we get to interrogate a teenager who managed to release an ancient evil,” Virgil complained as he moved to pry the snake arm off of said teenager.

“Aww, cheer up, Virgil!” Patton said with his signature smile beneath his hood. “They might have been fairy tale villains, but at least they’re fairy tale villains we can beat!” 

“Yeah, I guess..” Virgil knelt down and grabbed the teenager’s arm to pick him up, jumping back and hissing as he felt a shock. “Dang it, Logan!”

“That might be my power, but that’s not my fault. You shouldn’t have gotten shocked like that.” 

“Whatever, you shocked him pretty good. I guess I shouldn’t get so mad,” Virgil sighed before throwing the kid over his back like a sack of potatoes. “Let’s just get back to the monastery.” 

Once they got back, they tied the teenager to a chair in their training room. With this being their first time having someone to interrogate, they weren’t exactly prepared, but this would do. 

“Logan, can you take the first shift in watching him? I’d do it myself, but I wanted to finish making breakfast first,” Patton asked as he and Logan finished tying the ropes. 

“No, I don’t mind. I didn’t have anything in particular that I wanted to do anyways,” Logan said completely honestly. 

“Thanks, Lo!” Patton smiled and ran back to the kitchen. 

Logan smiled at his friend’s high energy and sat in the chair set across from the stranger, humming as he noticed something weird. Those scales from last time were hardly noticeable now. Logan assumed that they’d been wiped away in the rush. He hummed in thought before deciding to try and wipe it off for him, flinching as he felt a small shock. Maybe he had given that snake a bigger shock than he’d thought.... But, more importantly, Logan noticed that the remaining makeup didn’t stay. Rater, what he believed to be skin was wiped off. 

“What?..” he asked himself quietly, wiping off a bit more, watching as more scales appeared across his face. 

“Ugh..” 

Logan jumped as the teenager began waking up, pulling on his ninja mask and deciding to begin this interrogation on his own, starting with one particular issue. 


	3. Chapter 3

The teenager looked around as he woke up, quickly sitting up in panic. “Where am I?” He looked up at Logan. “Oh, it’s you.. Why am I here?”

“You show up, terrorize the town, then come back the next day with an ancient evil. Naturally, we do have some questions. My first one has to do with those scales on your face. Are they actually a part of you?..”

He tutted and sat up a bit straighter. “Yeah, they are. What of it?”

“No need to get so defensive. It’s just not everyday that you see someone with scales.. May I ask how it happened?”

“You can ask, but I don’t know much more than you do..” he muttered. 

Logan looked at him curiously. “What do you mean?”

“I mean I never got any kind of explanation either. My mother just said it was how I was.”

“I see..” Logan raised his hand. “Would you mind if I..”

“Go ahead.” The other tilted his head up, allowing Logan to touch his scales. 

The second that his hand began running over the scales, the teen let out a breathy gasp and Logan yanked his hand away. 

“What is it? Does that hurt?”

“I.. No.. It’s not that,” he said, shaking his head a bit. “I didn’t think you’d be so gentle about it.. It’s been a while since anyone’s been that gentle touching me..”

“Oh..” Logan smiled softly. “I get it, but I’m not here to hurt you, trust m-”

“Logan!” Patton cried out as he popped into the room. He ran over and pulled his friend away from the stranger, unsure what was happening, but sure that he wouldn’t like it. “What’s going on here?..”

“Those scales.. They’re real and I was just curious about how they felt.” 

“Oh..” Patton said with an awkward, breathy laugh. “I’m sorry, I guess I jumped to conclusions..” He looked at their guest. “Would you like some breakfast?.. We can’t really let you out, but we can feed you.”

The stranger looked genuinely surprised by the offer. “Oh.. Um...” He hesitated before nodding. “Sure.. I’m not a picky eater..”

“Great!” Patton smiled and turned back to Logan. “I’ll fix him a plate and I’ll be right back.” 

Logan nodded and watched his friend leave. “So, what were you doing in that village?..” 

“I was just trying to buy some food, okay? I didn’t want to steal. I just walked in and went to a shop, then when I tried to pull out my money, they thought I had a weapon and began screaming, so I just ran..” He sighed. “Then you guys showed up and chased me out.” 

“And those serpentine? You’re the one who released them, right?”

The teenager chuckled. “You’re going to think I’m crazy..”

“I can shoot lightning from my hands. Try me.”

“I’m back!” Patton said in his typical sing-song voice. 

Still cold to the rest of Logan’s friends, the stranger shut up, his eyes locked on the floor. 

“Hey, Patton, perhaps it’d be best if we got all of our questioning done as soon as breakfast is over. Maybe we could even just leave him in here, untied.”

“Untied? But what if he, like.. Tries to leave?”

Logan trusted the kid not to do that, but he knew that it’d take some convincing to get any of his friends to do the same, even Patton. “I think it’ll be safe, but if it’d make you feel better, you could always reinforce the window from outside with your ice.”

Patton still seemed a bit hesitant, but at least he felt a bit reassured. “Okay.. I guess you’re right.” He went over to the windows and froze them over as Logan worked on untying the other. 

“May I ask, what is your name by the way?”

The boy rubbed his sore wrists and sighed. “I go by Dee.” 

“Okay, Dee. I’m Logan.” Logan gave him a small nod, which Dee returned. 

“Nice to know..”

Patton glanced back at them, a bit worried. He trusted Logan’s judgement completely, but didn’t it seem a little dangerous to just share his name like that? He did his best to ignore those thoughts and froze over the windows, adding a few inches of ice before leaving the room. 

Logan met him out in the kitchen a few seconds later, getting his own plate ready. 

“Don’t you think it’s a little weird to share names with him?..”

Logan furrowed his eyebrows a bit, confused. “No, what makes you say that?”

Patton shrugged. “Well.. We still don’t know if he’s a criminal or anything.. I don’t know, I guess you’re just always the more careful one, it’s weird to see you try to get along with him like that.” 

And, honestly, it made sense. Logan knew that he, if not Virgil, was the most reserved on the team. Getting on a first name basis with Dee seemed more like something Roman or Patton would do. “I don’t know. He’s around our age, I guess it just makes more sense to me to treat him like it instead of like a criminal, whether or not he did anything.” 

“I guess that makes sense,” Patton shrugged. “He doesn’t seem all that dangerous, but with something like the Serpentine involved, we can’t be too careful. We don’t even know where they came from.” 

And, admittedly, that was one part of the puzzle that Logan was lost on, but he supposed they were still working on getting their answers. “Let’s just get through this interrogation for now.” 

Patton nodded and followed Logan to the kitchen table for breakfast, where everyone else was already waiting. 

“So, how is everything going with that guy?” Virgil asked. 

“He seems calm enough,” Logan responded. “We released him to eat, but only after Patton added a thick layer of ice to the window and, of course, we locked the door.”

Virgil nodded a bit. “Do you think he’ll fight once we’re in there asking questions?”

“No, he seemed cooperative. He knows what we’re capable of and I doubt he could hold all of us off long enough to get away or anything.”

“That sucks, I was hoping we could get a workout out of him,” Roman joked. 

Logan simply rolled his eyes in response. He may not have known much about the kid in their training room, but he could tell that he was just that. A kid. 

After breakfast, the four of them made their way back to the room, Roman and Patton keeping a hand on their weapons, just in case, as Logan unlocked and opened the door, revealing a sight that surprised all but one ninja. 

Dee was simply sitting in his chair, eating. He turned as he heard the door open and waved at the four with his fork. “Would I be able to get another plate before I leave later?” 

“Of course, we just have to ask you some questions.” 

Dee nodded and put down his fork, his plate clean. “I figured as much... Go ahead.” 

“Why were you with those serpentine?” Virgil asked. 

Roman waved it off a bit. “Uh, I think the better question here is where did they come from? They're an ancient evil, it’s not like they just popped out of thin air.” 

“I was just in the forest after you guys started chased me out of the village and I fell into a pit where they were. They said they just wanted to make their own place to live to show humans that they can be peaceful, given the chance, and...” Dee sighed. “Well, obviously, I made the mistake of believing them.. They said either I let them out of I’d become their next meal, so I showed them out.. I just came back to the village to try and buy some more food and they showed up. Then you showed up..” 

Virgil seemed incredibly suspicious of this story, but he kept that to himself. “But you stole food.” 

“Only because they saw me and screamed before I could try to pay for anything. That’s why I covered up my scales, so that they wouldn’t do that and I could just get more food in peace..” 

Roman furrowed his eyebrows. “Covered them up?.. Those aren’t real, are they?”

“Of course they’re  _ not, _ I just  _ love _ when people see me and run away screaming before I even open my mouth,” Dee deadpanned. “They’re real, I was born with them and, before you ask, I don’t know where they came from, my mother never told me.” 

Roman just nodded, letting that sarcastic remark just slip by. 

“So, you really weren’t with those serpentine?” Patton asked, genuinely surprised. 

“No. I’ll admit that I was the one who made the mistake of releasing them, but I’m not working with them.”

“Give us just a moment,” Roman said before pulling his friends just out of the room. “I don’t know, I think he’s telling the truth...” 

Logan nodded. “I agree with Roman, this honestly seems like a classic case of wrong place, wrong time. An extreme case that applies both to the incident at the village and releasing the snakes, but an accident, all the same.” 

“I don’t believe him,” Virgil said firmly. “If those scales are real, how do we know he’s not working with them? He could be lying to our faces and we wouldn’t know the difference.” 

“I have to agree with Virgil here.. Nothing against him, but this just all seems too suspicious.. I think we should at least keep an eye on him, just in case.” 

Roman shrugged a bit, thinking it through. “I see your point.. I don’t think he meant to release them, but the thing about the scales..” 

Logan sighed. There was just something about Dee that compelled him to completely believe him, but there was no real explaining what. But if his friends didn’t want to believe him, Logan was outnumbered. “How about a compromise. We can let him free this time, but if we catch him around those snakes again, we can keep him more permanently.” 

“I think we should keep him around permanently now,” Thomas interjected, his four students bowing as they noticed his presence. “Not because I think he did anything, but... I don’t know, I have a feeling about this kid.” 

“But, sir, what if he is trouble?” Virgil asked. “What if he does just steal information or our weapons or he just trashes the place and leaves?” 

Thoams shrugged and turned to leave. “You four are ninja with elemental powers. If he can get past you, he probably earned his escape. I’ll leave the final decision up to you, but you have my opinion.” 

And that settled it, really. Dee was going to be their new roommate. 


	4. Chapter 4

“What do you mean I’m not a prisoner, what are you keeping me here for, then?” 

“We just figured it was a better alternative to you accidentally scaring and stealing.. We’re not going to keep you locked up or anything,” Patton explained as he thawed out the windows. “Do you have anywhere else to go or anything you need first?” 

Dee hesitated, but shook his head. “No.. I got kicked out of boarding school, I’ve just been living in the forest ever since.” And it wasn’t the best place to live, but he did get to go without that awful makeup that he was forced to wear in school. 

“Then wouldn’t this kind of be a step up?..” Patton asked cautiously. 

It took a lot of self control not to turn around and snap at Patton for that remark, but these guys were, in fact, doing him a favor by letting him stay there. To snap at Patton and say that not having to hide his own identity would be better than having a constant place to stay would easily put that in jeopardy. Instead, he just shrugged. “I guess so..” 

Patton nodded and left the room. He still wasn’t Dee’s biggest fan, but he also knew that completely antagonizing him wasn’t the right thing to do here. 

Later that day, the four ninja went back to training as usual, seeing as things were fairly quiet otherwise, and Dee simply watched. It wasn’t like he was trying to be weird, there just wasn’t much to do, now that he wasn’t spending every moment planning where he was going to get his next batch of supplies from or where he’d rest. 

Roman was the one who responded to it, not necessarily bothered by being watched, but sure that it had to be kind of boring. “Why don’t you join us? We can teach you the basics and have a few sparring matches.” 

Dee’s eyebrows rose and his mouth opened and closed a few times as he struggled to figure out how to answer. “I.. I don’t know, you guys know what you’re doing and I’d just embarrass myself..”

Roman smiled and went over, grabbing his arm. “Oh, nonsense. Nobody starts as an expert. I mean, you’re already here, why not do something more with your time than watch us be cool? No powers, just a training session.” 

Dee still wasn’t sure, but how could he say no when he was literally being dragged into the training ring? “Fine.. But if this is just some excuse to humiliate me, I’m leaving.” 

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Roman hummed, taking Dee through some warm up exercises while his friends took a break. 

“This is probably the stupidest thing Roman’s ever thought of...” Virgil commented as he got some water. 

Patton shrugged. “Oh, I don’t see the harm in this. As long as he keeps it to simple stuff.. Plus, its like what Thomas said. We have powers, there’s no way one of him can beat all of us.” 

Virgil sighed and took a sip of his water, looking at Logan for input. He knew that sometimes, his mind liked to exaggerate the danger of a situation, so either getting Logan to agree with Patton will reassure his worries or him agreeing with Virgil will show Patton that he’s right. 

“Patton does have a point. The odds of him defeating us in any sort of combat are infinitesimal. Even in our sleep, he can’t take down one of us without waking up another.” 

“Right..”

The three of them went back to training with Roman and Dee a few minutes later, doing a bit of stretching before leaving their monastery to take a run for a little while. Roman was the one who stayed behind with Dee when he needed breaks, since his endurance wasn’t nearly as high as the other four. 

“How do you guys do this everyday? I feel like I’m going to pass out,,” Dee huffed as he and Roman took yet another water break. 

Roman shrugged a bit. “Well, we have been training for a while. We wouldn’t want to be out of shape if some sort of threat were to show up.”

“Like the serpentine,” Dee said flatly, expecting Roman to pick on him for it. 

“Oh! No, that wasn’t what I was trying to imply, I just meant.. Well, you might not believe it, but the threat of the Dark Lord Remigius... I actually fought him not too long ago. Not hand to hand, but we did face off.”

Dee almost wanted to laugh, but was it really so ridiculous to believe that an ancient evil was coming back when he released an ancient evil just the day before? “You’re serious? I thought he was sent to the Underworld before Ninjago was even a place.” 

“He was, but the there’s a place where the Underworld meets ours. My fire sword was there and... Let’s just say he made it sound like he had something important of mine..”

Dee nodded a bit. “Must’ve been pretty important for you to fight something like him..”

Roman chuckled and smiled a bit. “Well, he was far from the superpower that he used to be. I did need Thomas’s help, though.. I was still pretty new to this whole thing at the time.” 

“Well, I still think that’s cool. And if I get strong enough to defeat an ancient evil, maybe staying here will be more worthwhile than I’d expect.” 

Roman smiled and took a deep breath before standing up. “Well, we should get back to our run.” 

Dee stood up and groaned. “Ugh, alright, but don’t be surprised if I pass out.” 

Eventually, the two of them met the other three back at the monastery, even if it meant that Dee was on Roman’s back as they made their way up. 

“Sorry, we ran out of water and he was about to pass out.”

“I said.. I said I could’ve done it.. Just.. Stop swaying so much..” 

Roman smiled and carefully put Dee down, settling him as he stumbled on his feet. “Maybe we should get some food into you..”

Dee groaned, the mere thought of eating making his stomach turn. 

“I thought the same thing when I started training, but trust me, food will help,” Roman assured, leading Dee inside behind everyone else. 

“If it makes you feel better, we can start you off with plain toast to settle your stomach,” Patton added on. “But even if you want to just nap, you shouldn’t on an empty stomach.” 

“Alright..” Dee groaned. 

By the time that they managed to get some toast into Dee’s system, his stomach had settled enough for him to realize that he was, in fact, hungry. So, Patton gave him a plate of food before pulling the rest of his friends aside. 

“I just realized... Dee doesn’t have a place to sleep here. And we don’t really have any extra rooms.” It was a pretty small building to begin with, after all. “What are we going to do, we can’t just say he’s going to stay here and not give him anywhere to sleep..”

“Why not?” Virgil asked, rolling his eyes. 

Patton frowned a bit. “Aww, I know you’re still not too happy about him being here, but you don’t have to be so negative about it..” 

Virgil didn’t mean to be rude, but... “You do realize who you’re talking to, right? Negative is kind of my whole thing.” 

“That’s true, but Patton does have a point,” Logan added on. “Perhaps we should’ve taken that into account before inviting him to stay.” 

“No so much inviting as kind of forcing, but the point remains,” Roman corrected. “I wouldn’t mind rolling out some blankets into a makeshift bed and letting him take my place until we figure this out.” 

As they finished making plans, Dee decided to go back outside for fresh air, now that his stomach settled, to wait for Patton to come back so he could ask for an actual plate of food. Honestly, he felt kind of embarrassed that he wasn’t at the same level as the ninjas, but there was one thing he was probably better at and that was climbing. He didn’t get by living in the trees without picking up a thing or two about it. So, he scaled the walls, sitting on top of them and looking out over the nearby villages and forests. Sure, he could leave, but why would he? Here, he was getting free food, a place to sleep, and he didn’t have to hide his scales. It was safe. Nice, even. 

He let out a relaxed sigh and stood up, walking along the thick brick walls until he spotted a lot of blue movement in one of the other villages. Dee furrowed his eyebrows and walked around to get as close as he could without falling off to see closer. Whatever he saw, it didn’t look good. 


	5. Chapter 5

“Hey, Dee, what are you doing all the way up there?” Thomas asked as he came outside. “And... How did you get up there?” 

“I think the serpentine are attacking a village. It’s like...” he pointed in the direction of the village. “Like that way and a little bit closer than Edis?..” 

Thomas furrowed his eyebrows with worry. “I’ll tell them, but please get back down here.” 

Dee nodded and climbed down as Thomas left, watching the ninja all run out. 

“Thank you for letting us know... Typically, we only find out whenever someone comes and finds us, but with them around, it’ll be hard to let them have such a huge headstart on destruction.” 

“I know.. I’m sorry again for what I did..” 

“What happened wasn’t your fault. Accidents are accidents.” 

“Right..” 

Thomas smiled and put a hand on his shoulder. “Come on.. Are you still hungry?” 

Dee nodded. 

“Then lets get you a plate.” 

Down in the village, the four ninja arrived at the village and did in fact see a good sized crowd of serpentine, but... 

“Weren’t there a lot more last time?” Patton asked as they began fighting. 

“Yeah, but maybe they didn’t want to all get hurt,” Roman pointed out as he took down a few of them. 

Logan wasn’t sure. “Something doesn’t feel right about this..” 

“Yeah, I thought it was just my usual anxiety, but this seems suspicious,” Virgil added. 

Roman nodded a bit. “Well, if you’re both feeling something, maybe there’s something to it.” 

“I’ll go out to the forest with Virgil and see if we can find anything. You and Patton stay here, you should be able to take care of these snakes.” 

“Easily!” Roman assured as he fought off a few more snakes, Patton right beside him. 

Logan and Virgil took off towards the woods and began searching for anything that could lead them to the rest of the snakes. 

“Ugh, now I actually wish Dee was here so he could help us,” Virgil groaned after a while of finding nothing. 

“What do you have against him, anyways?” Logan asked. “You’ve been completely closed to the idea of having him around for no reason.” 

“It’s not _no_ reason, I just don’t trust him. We don’t know this guy, suddenly he pops up saying he released some ancient evil on accident and we just keep him in our monastery? It’s nothing personal or anything, I just think it seems kind of suspicious.” 

Logan nodded in understanding. He could see where Virgil was coming from, plus Virgil always was the paranoid one of the group. “Maybe just give him a chance? He doesn’t seem like a bad guy, but we won’t really find out if he’s always as guarded as he is around us. We have to trust him, or at least act like it, before we can even think about him trusting us.” 

Virgil sighed and leaned against a tree, taking a quick break, “Alright, I get it. I’m not going to be his best friend or anything, but I guess I can pretend like I’m not watching his every move.” 

“And that’s all I’m asking for. Thank you.” 

Virgil nodded and pushed off his tree, taking a few steps before the ground sunk in beneath his feet and he fell with a scream. 

“Virgil!” Logan cried out, getting close enough to look down inside. “Virgil, are you okay?” 

From where he landed, Virgil groaned and sat up, looking up at Logan and waving. “Yeah, I didn’t fall too hard.” 

Logan sighed with relief. “Good..” 

Virgil looked around and finally realized something suspicious. “Hey, caves don’t usually have torches already lit up, do they?” 

“What?... No, of course they don’t.” 

“Well, this one does.” He looked up and gestured for Logan to join him. “I’m not checking this out alone, come on.” 

Logan hesitated, but he figured if Virgil was fine, how bad of a fall could it be? So, he slid down into the cave and landed almost on his feet, stumbling a bit as he hit the ground. Once he regained his balance, he looked around the cave, seeing the aforementioned torches as well as a bunch of markings on the wall. “This is strange..” He stared around for a while, hoping to commit the images to memory. “Perhaps this is where the serpentine came from?” 

“Oh yeah. Come look at this.” 

Logan went over and immediately saw what Virgil was talking about. Snake-like skeletons lying at the base of some more paintings, those ones basically depicting the same snake people that they were fighting in the village not long ago. “This is extraordinary... We should really bring a camera in here so we can show Thomas all of this. I imagine he’d have a lot more knowledge than we do.” 

“For sure,” Virgil nodded, looking at the different details in the paintings. 

As he did that, Logan looked at the area around it, his eyes widening as they came across a certain phrase. 

“When the five fangs unite as one, the path to unleashing the Great Devourer has begun,” he repeated. 

“What does that mean?” Virgil asked as he saw the same words. 

“I don’t know... What I do know is it doesn’t sound good...” 

“Didn’t the legends say that there were five Serpentine tribes?..” 

Logan nodded, quickly getting what Virgil was hinting at. “You don’t think..” 

“I think we’re on the same page here...” Virgil looked around for a bit. “Come on.. There’s no sign of them in here, we should really get back out. Patton and Roman are probably done with the village snakes, we can just tell them about this.” 

“Right.” 

Virgil waited until Logan was right beside him beneath the hole in the ground and swung his scythe, hitting the ground and causing it to lift them back up to the surface. 

The two of them went back to the village and found their friends wrapping up their fight. 

“Did you guys find anything?” Roman asked as he saw them. 

Virgil nodded. “We think we know what they’re up to, but we’re going to need to go back to where we were and try to take some pictures or something.” 

“Where did you go?” Patton asked, joining the other three. 

“Some sort of cave, probably the tomb that they were locked in all of these years,” Logan said. “There was writing on the wall in some sort of language and we need to take pictures to see if maybe Thomas knows anything about it.”

“Well, what are we waiting around here for?” Patton smiled and began walking with his friends back up to the monastery. 

But something seemed off. More than off. 

As they climbed the mountain to their home, there was some sort of powder in the air, sticking to their clothes and skin. 

Roman swiped a bit off of his hand and looked at it for a second before stopping in his tracks, getting everyone’s attention. “These are ashes.” 

All four ninja broke into a sprint up to their home, finding a pile of ash and smoking wood where it once stood. 

Solemnly, they walked through the remains of their home, trying to find anything that could’ve possibly been left over. 

Virgil walked towards a pile of singed planks and began pulling them apart, crying out as he saw someone underneath it all. “Guys, it’s Dee and Thomas!” He made quick work of yanking the planks off as everyone gathered around to help him get them free. 

Logan grabbed Dee and Roman grabbed Thomas, pulling them both out of the rubble and onto the mostly flat ground. 

Logan put his ear against Dee’s chest, sighing as he found a heartbeat and Roman did the same. 

It was only a minute before the teenager began to regain consciousness, groaning. 

Slowly, Dee’s eyes opened and he looked around, clearly in a daze. 

Thomas began waking up soon after, doing so a lot more smoothly and sitting up before Dee even seemed to remember where he was. He looked around at his four students and sighed. “They came in so fast... It wasn’t long after you left, Dee even saw them and we were going to run, but they were too fast...” 

Dee slowly sat up and rubbed his head. “I tried to help him stop them...” 

“He did. Then the last of the building collapsed and he threw himself over me to save me.” Thomas smiled a bit, pushing himself to his feet and helping Dee up. 

Virgil frowned and looked around. “Look, I’m really glad that you two are okay, but what about our home? This place is destroyed thanks to those stupid snakes.”

“We’ll find another home,” Thomas assured. “I’m as upset about it as you guys are, but maybe we should focus on the fact that everyone is okay now.” 

“It’s hard to focus on that when those snakes think they can just come up and destroy this place with no consequences!” Virgil was getting increasingly frustrated, partly out of panic and fear and partly out of anger. 

“Virgil, you need to calm down before you say or do something you regret,” Logan said. “Thomas is right, nothing good can come of us sitting here and wallowing in self pity.” 

Virgil scoffed. “Self pity, is that what you call this?” 

“Just give him time to let it out, Logan. We’re all pretty upset about this and you know nothing good can come from Virgil just holding it all in,” Roman added. Of course, he wasn’t a huge fan of Virgil freaking out and screaming like that, but the only way to end it was to just let Virgil get it out of his system. 

Logan rolled his eyes, growing frustrated, and noticed Patton staring at something. “Is something wrong, Patton?” 

“Uh..” Patton didn’t want to start any conflict, but he couldn’t just lie. He went over to where he was staring and picked up a backpack, the outside partially charred. “Dee, is this yours?..” 

Of course, Dee knew what Patton was worried about, but he had to nod. It was his backpack with his stuff inside of it, everything he owned. “Yes... Yes, it’s mine.” 

“Of fucking course!” Virgil laughed. “Of course the only thing left here is his stupid backpack! What, did you have a pact with the serpentine? You wanted to show us up for chasing you out of town, so you get in here and act all friendly until they get here and take away everything from us?!” 

“Virgil, stop!” Logan warned as Patton gave Dee his bag, the latter holding it defensively, clearly scared. 

“No! I’m not going to stop! What, you think this is just some big coincidence?! He’s the one who warned us about those stupid snakes attacking the village, he happened to leave out that it was only a few of them! This is all his fault and I’m not going to apologize for being the only one able to see it!” 

“Virgil, enough.” This time, it was Thomas who spoke, sternly enough to silence Virgil completely. “This is not the time for all of us to be screaming at each other like this. We’re all upset about what happened and you shouldn’t be mad at Dee because it happened to be his backpack. In case you forgot, he threw himself in front of me when those pillars fell and I highly doubt he would’ve done that had he been involved with those snakes.” 

Virgil gritted his teeth, but stood down for the time being. 

Roman sighed and looked around, noticing that someone was missing. “He ran... Dee ran off.” 

Everyone else went silent as they realized he was right. And for a second, they all had the same thought. 

Maybe Virgil was right. 


	6. Chapter 6

Patton was the first to shake that off. Sure, he wasn’t Dee’s biggest fan, but Dee had multiple opportunities to run before, didn’t he? Why would he just start then? He looked down and saw footprints in the ash pile, deciding to follow them and quickly catching up to Dee at the base of the mountain. “Hey, what are you doing?” 

“What does it look like? I’m going back to living alone. Things were better for everyone this way.” 

“That’s not true, Virgil was just speaking out of heat of the moment, you should come back..” 

Dee shook his head. “You guys don’t even want me there. That much has been clear since the moment I stepped into the place.” 

“That... That’s not true..” 

Dee scoffed. “Can you honestly look me in the eye and say that Virgil, and even you for that matter, wanted to let me in here from the very beginning? I could tell that Logan was fine with it and it grew on Roman very quickly, but you two?”

Patton hesitated for a second. “I honestly don’t mind having you here...” 

“Don’t lie to my face. Hurt my feelings, tell me that you hate me, I don’t give a damn, but don’t just lie to my face. I’ve been lied to my whole life.” 

Patton frowned. “It’s nothing personal..”

“And I can understand that. What I can’t understand is why you’d be so desperate to have me back that you’d lie when you clearly don’t trust me.” 

“I’m learning to trust you..” 

Dee sighed and looked out into the forest before looking back at Patton. “Look, I’m going to go. If, for some reason, I want to come back, then I will. For now, you’re not going to take me back.” 

“I’m sorry..” 

“Don’t be. Like you said, it’s nothing personal.” Dee turned and walked away, quickly getting lost amongst the trees and bushes. 

Patton sighed and began the trek back up the mountain, meeting his friends and Thomas about halfway up. 

“Did you find him?” Logan asked. 

“Well... Yeah, but..” Patton toyed with his fingers for a bit before finishing his sentence. “I let him go..” 

“What?” Roman asked. “Why would you do that? Virgil shouldn’t have yelled like that, we all know that.” 

Patton frowned. “He just seemed so desperate to get way.. He said he’d come back if he wanted, but... It felt so wrong to even think about forcing him back right now.” 

“It’s always best to follow your gut,” Thomas said. “I know I said I wanted him here, but circumstances change. If Patton thinks he did the right thing, we have to respect that.” 

Logan nodded. “Besides, we do have things like finding a new home to worry about..” 

“Exactly. If he’s meant to find us, he’ll find us. And I have a feeling we’ll be seeing him soon.” 

Despite trying all night, the five were unable to find a place to stay, having lost all of their money in the fire and deciding to make a camp at the base of the mountain, where it’d be warmer than the peak. 

“This sucks...” Roman complained after lighting a fire. “I wish we at least had some good food..” 

“Do you want the berries or not? We’re all hungry,” Virgil grumbled. 

Thomas sighed. “Come on, guys.. Things could still be worse. We at least have each other.” 

“We don’t have Dee...” Patton muttered. “He’s probably all alone..” 

“If it eases your worries, he’s probably done this before. I’m sure he’s going to be just fine,” Logan reassured. 

Patton nodded and leaned against Logan, the only one of them that didn’t particularly mind Patton’s unnaturally low body temperature, before falling asleep. 

In the morning, there was a chorus of groaning and bones popping as everyone woke up, even from Thomas. 

“That’s it! I’m going and I’m finding us somewhere to live!” Roman exclaimed, slowly climbing to his feet. “I can deal with fighting giant snakes and the spirit of an ancient evil, I can deal with getting beat up by the old training machines, but what I cannot deal with is this!” he cried, vaguely gesturing to Virgil, who he’d knocked off of himself. 

“I’m sorry you’re warm! It’s not like I enjoy the idea of waking up cuddling you!” 

“I think this is a perfect time to show you what I’ve found.” 

The four ninja and Thomas turned and saw Dee standing there. Patton and Roman smiled widely and the other three gave a small grin, at varying levels of reluctance. 

“You came back!” Roman cheered. “Do you have any real food on you?”

Dee grinned and nodded behind him. “Oh, I’ve got more than that.” He turned and began walking, the five following him out through the forest and into a desert, quickly seeing what he’d discovered. 

Dee had lead them to a giant ship, half buried in the sand, but it was quite obviously the source of an amazing smell, one that Roman and Patton began sprinting towards without hesitation, Logan and Virgil following close behind them. 

“How did you find this?..” Thomas asked, able to ignore his urge to run for at least a bit longer than the other four. 

“I don’t know.. After I left, I just ran as far as I could and I ended up coming across it. It was completely empty, no sign of anyone living there or anything, but you could tell that people used to. I started a fire and made a bed, then I went back into the forest and got some food. Fruits, vegetables, I was even able to find some meat.” 

Thomas nodded, impressed, and began walking with Dee down to the ship. 

All six of them sat down and had a nice, large breakfast in the warm dining area of the ship, quiet besides the sound of the four ninja devouring food to sate the high metabolisms that formed from their high amounts of exercise. 

As they finished, Thomas explored the ship, finding a room where he could store the scrolls that he managed to save before the monastery fell, feeling a presence following him. “Do you know where I could put these scrolls, Dee?” He smiled as he heard the other jump a bit. 

“Uh.. Yeah, I found an office bedroom kind of place..” Dee stepped in front of him to lead the way. “What are they for, anyways? I saw how much you really wanted to save them in the fire.” 

“A bunch of regular, boring mentor things. Prophecies, techniques, stuff like that.” 

Dee nodded and paused for a second. “Do you think I could train with the rest of them? I mean.. If I’m going to stay here like this, I might as well do something. And I refuse to just stay inside and do house work.” He was tired of being hidden away, whether or not the reason was shame. 

“I don’t know.. What they do can be pretty dangerous...” 

“I’m a quick learner! I mean...” Dee sighed. “I just don’t want to be trapped away here like I was in school, that’s not what I left for...” 

Thomas smiled sadly. “Well... I don’t know about joining them on missions, but I guess it wouldn’t be a problem if you maybe trained with them. Then we can talk about this again later. But you are free to come and go as you please, whether or not you hide your scales.” 

That seemed to at least help Dee seem a bit less tense. He nodded and stopped at a door. “This is the room.” 

“Thank you.. I really can’t tell you what finding this place means to all of us.” 

Dee smiled a bit. “It would’ve been a real jerk move to find it and not share it with you guys, I guess...” 

Thomas smiled back before going into the room. 

Dee sighed and went back to the other four ninja as they finished up their meal. “So, now that I’ve found this place, who’s going to help me clean it up?”

“After the food settles,” Patton muttered, his head resting on the table. 

“Yeah, you really know how to make a meal,” Roman added. 

Dee chuckled. “Alright, that’s fair. Well, I’ll be waiting out on the deck.” He waved and let them be, going out and enjoying the sun until Thomas joined him again. 

“I have to go into town and pick up some things. Do you want to come with?” 

He smiled a bit, seeing this as Thomas trying to prove that he was accepted, and nodded. “Yeah, sure... I should put on my makeup, though.. You guys may accept me, but you’re in the minority and I don’t want to accidentally stop you from getting what you need.” 

“If you insist...” 

As the two of them left, the ninja began trying to clean up, having already been informed of Dee’s absence. Sure, they took a few shortcuts, used their elemental powers to help carry things around or to help get rid of the dust, but when it came down to it, was it so different from training? It took a few minutes to convince Logan that it wasn’t and, when they finally did, he used his own powers to give the ship some electricity, starting up lights, screens, and other things that definitely were not questionable. 

“Finally, I can stop lighting up these stupid torches,” Roman cheered as he made his way towards Thomas’s room with Patton to clean it up some. But before Patton could cover the room in ice so Roman could melt and evaporate it, Roman noticed something under the desk. “What have we got here?” He grabbed the paper that was sticking out and pulled it out, finding a scroll written in some sort of old language. “Logan!” 

“Maybe we shouldn’t be messing with Thomas’s stuff,” Patton pointed out. “It’s really not ours to look at.” 

“There’s a ninja drawn right there, Patton, of course we should try and figure it out.” 

Logan sighed as he walked in. “What?” 

Roman showed him the scroll. “Translate?” 

Logan tutted and snatched the scroll away, grumbling under his breath. “Maybe if you bothered cracking open a book once in a while, you’d know-” He stopped suddenly, confusion showing itself on his face. 

“Hey, why are you guys just goofing off? We have work to do,” Virgil pointed out as he walked in, seeing the look on Logan’s face. “Nevermind, this seems interesting.” 

“It says that one of us is destined to rise above the others and become the green ninja. Whoever this is will be more powerful than the four of us combined and will rise up to beat the darkness. Clearly, that part is referring to the Dark Lord Remigius...” 

The green ninja? Which one of them could it be? It seemed to be the question in all of their minds as they glanced at each other quizzically, each of them having the same thought. ‘Isn’t it obvious? Of course it’s going to be me.’ 


End file.
